Possessed to Knit

Icelandic Raglan Completed

I've completed my Icelandic Raglan sweater for the Dulaan project.  I used size 9 needles for the body and sleeves and size 7 needles for the ribbing.  The gauge was 4 sts and about 5.5 rows per inch on size 9 needles in the stockinette stitch.  This sweater was a good review of button and buttonhole placement for me.  I took a "7 Things that Can Make or Break Your Sweater" class in March at Springwater Fiber Workshop.  Our instructor told us about using the actual row gauge to determine how many sts to pick up for the button and buttonhole bands.  With 5.5 rows per inch along the sweater edge and 5 sts per inch on my size 7 needles, I picked up 5 sts for every 6 sts.  I think it worked okay, but the buttonhole band turned out wavier than I like.  (Please feel free to add your insight, Patrick).  I see that I also need to work on my buttonhole spacing, at least this sweater was practice for me.  I found my Denise needles especially helpful as I could just change the tips depending on what I needed next like when I used the size 8 for binding off.  This is not the softest sweater I have knitted, but I am hoping it will still keep a Mongolian child warm this winter. 

Icelandic Raglan

I started this child sized raglan sweater for the Dulaan Project.  All knitted items received by July 1st will be sent to Mongolia to help the Mongolian children stay warm during the winter.  I have put my other projects aside as I hope to complete this sweater and put it in the mail before the deadline.  I am using my handspun Icelandic Chloe yarn.  I was going to knit myself a vest with it and then realized it would make a warm cardigan for a child.  I expected to get 3.5 sts per inch on size 9 needles like I did when I swatched.  The sweater is turning out to be 4 sts and 5 rows per inch so I am making a child's size 8 sweater instead of size 12 as I had planned.  I am adjusting the recommended increases and decreases to accommodate the gauge difference.  This pattern is Ann Norling's Kid's Top-down Raglan (#53) and does not mention the addition of any stitches at the underarm for the body and sleeves.  I will likely be picking up 2 extra sts when I start the sleeves to minimize the hole I expect to have on the first round.  The pattern recommends knitting the sleeves back and forth.  I will be knitting them in the round with my 40" Denise needle using the Magic Loop.  I wasn't sure how much I would like these needles when I bought them and it turns out they are perfect and convenient for this type of project.

Fuscia Print Toe-Up Socks

I've been knitting these toe-up socks with the extra On Your Toes yarn from my Fair Isle socks.  This yarn looks very different when knitted by itself.  I don't knit toe-up socks very often as I like the top-down style toe better.  I had just enough of this yarn leftover to make a pair of socks so I couldn't be too fussy about making them match either.  I started with a provisional cast on and worked a short-row toe down to 10 sts (on size 0 Addi Bamboo dpns).  I like to use the large blocks of one color to begin the toe and keep it all the same shade.  Shorter blocks of color would create an asymmetric toe.  I started the foot with 64 sts on size 2.5 mm Knit Picks 32" circular needles and knitted about 64 rounds before working the short row heel down to 12 sts on size 0 Addi Bamboo dpns.  I knitted 18 rounds on the 2.5 mm needles followed by 45 rounds of k2,p2 ribbing.  I ended the sock with a tubular bind off for k2, p2 rib that I found in the Knitter's Handbook.  Two rounds of working 1 stitch then slipping the next stitch are completed before the grafting and this helps to make the edge look a little neater.  These socks are the perfect travel project.

Cashmere Silk Yarn

I've been spindle spinning my cashmere and my silk on separate spindles.  Here is a sample of one ply of each knit on size 5 (3.75 mm)Addi Turbo lace needles.  This is a reduced version of the snowflake pattern in A Russian Lace Scarf to Knit (by Dixie Falls and Jane Fournier) published in the July/August 2007 Piecework magazine.  The larger holes are from 2 yos at once followed by a k1,p1 into the 2 yos in the next row.  A size 4 (3.5 mm) needle might make a neater looking lace.  I will also give just doing 1 yo and then doing the k1,p1 into it on the following row a try.  This yarn is about 28 wpi and the silk strand helps to cover all the textury bits in the cashmere single.  I did card the cashmere into punis, yet I still ended up with more texture than I wanted.   The swatch is very soft with nice drape.  The cashmere is nice to spin and I have another ounce to card and spin.  The tussah silk is more challenging to work with and I am using my Satine Natalie spindle to spin it.  This is a great spindle project and there is sure to be more sampling in my future.

Ocean Lace Cardigan

I've started this Ocean Lace cardigan in Sea Song yarn from Fibra Natura for my sister, Maria.  I am using size 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo 32 inch circular needles.  This yarn is 80% cotton and 20% sea cell.  It is a 16-ply worsted weight yarn.  All those plies make it quite splitty.  I like using the lace needles for all the ssk sts, but I wonder if they are making me split more sts.  The gauge is supposed to be 6 sts and 6 rows to the inch.  I did a gauge square in if I blocked it well and got the gauge.  As I knit, though, it tends to be too wide and not quite the length I expect for the # of rows I have completed.  Here I have 36 rows plus one inch of k1, p1 ribbing and it is only 5.5 inches instead of the 7 inches I would expect.  I plan on blocking the pieces, but I wonder if the sweater will lose its blocking as it is worn.  I'm not used to knitting something so flimsy.  I am glad I ordered an extra ball of yarn, I might need it if I end up knitting more rows to reach the correct measurements.

Fair Isle Socks Completed

I've completed my Fair Isle socks.  The pattern called for 60 sts and size 2.75 mm needles.  I used 72 sts and size 2.25 mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix for the body of the socks and 2.00 mm Addi bamboo dpns for the heels and toes.  The color work went pretty well, I used my knitting thimble and eliminated the jog.  I have to adjust the stitches a bit after changing the beginning of the round with each round, but it is worth the extra effort to have a continuous Fair Isle pattern.  I thought the ribbing was only 12 rounds (instead of 16 rounds), but it turns out that the Sock Wars III sock has 12 rounds of ribbing.  I guess this is what can happen when I knit more than 1 pair of socks at a time.  I have over 2 ounces of the On Your Toes Fuscia Print left and plan to knit a pair of toe up socks.   This yarn has aloe vera in it and will make a nice pair of ankle socks.  I am wearing my cotton blend socks these days as it is very hot here and it will be months before I wear these extra warm socks.

Sock Wars Update

These are the socks I sent to my next target who lives in England.  I used Plymouth Sockotta sock yarn and size 2.5 mm needles for the body of the sock and size 2.0 mm needles for the heels and toes.  I studied my target's fiber blog and her Flickr sock photos and did my best to make socks that would fit her.  I like the Detonator Sock pattern a lot and had knitted her a pair of Tofutsie socks that simply looked like they would be too big for her.  I could not bring myself to send her socks that I knew would not fit her, so I knitted another pair for her.  I now have the Detonator pattern and all its nuances secured in my memory.  I read on my current assassin's blog that she is dead so I still have more time to live in Sock Wars III.  Over half of the 1150+ participants have been "killed" which makes for lots of socks traveling around the world. 

Latvian Mittens

I have a few mitten books that I have collected over the years and I find them very inspiring.  The Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting features a mitten project from Latvian Mittens (written by Lizbeth Upitis and published by Meg Swansen).  I selected these Knit Picks Palette colors for this mitten project (in the lower left corner), which was also a recent knit-a-long on the Schoolhouse Press website.  I like most of the colors, but I'm not sure about the green.  It is just in the cuff, though, and I look forward to seeing how these colors work together.  There is a corrected chart for the Vogue Knitting version of the pattern here.  The Vogue Knitting article shows Meg's two-color cast-on and how she creates the fringe along the cuff edge.  I will likely not start on this project till the fall, so in the meantime, I will continue to enjoy reading my mitten books.

Ocean Lace in Sea Song

Here is a swatch I knitted in Fibra Natura's Sea Song yarn.  It is 80% cotton and 20% sea cell with 109 yards in a 50g ball.  My sister, Maria, selected this sweater from my Interweave Knits when I visited her.  I've seen this sweater advertised quite a bit, yet it was difficult to find the yarn.  I finally found it at Yarnmarket.com and waited over a month for them to receive this color and the pattern.  I used the recommended size 6 needles for the swatch.  The Addi Turbo Lace needles are very helpful with the ssks involved with this pattern.  At first the swatch appeared to be too small, but some blocking brought it to about 6 sts and 6 rows per inch.  The yarn has a nice drape to it and is very soft.  I'm enjoying this particular colorway with its gentle changes in color.  I think this will be a fun summer project to knit.        

More Cotton Socks

While I wait for the next step in Sock Wars III, I have been working on some cotton socks.  I am experimenting with size 00 circular 40 inch needles.  I am using Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy (#803) on the left with 76 sts on Addi Turbo Lace needles.  I thought this sock might be turning out too small so I started the Regia Cotton Tip & Top (#4086) on the right with 80 sts on Hiya Hiya needles.  I like the pointier tips of the Addi Lace needles a little better than the Hiya Hiya needles.  I have learned that I can never really have too many needles, and it works out nicely to use them simultaneously for this project.  I will be curious to see how each needle does during the short row sock heel.  For now, I will continue with the Tip & Toe socks as I wait for either a pair of sock wars socks or a partially completed pair of socks for my next target.